2. Utility as the Spirit of Capitalism: Max Weber’s
Diagnosis of Modern Work.

3. Labour, Excess and Utility in Karl Marx: The Problem of
Materialism and the Aesthetic.

4. John Ruskin and William Morris: An Alternative Tradition:
Labor and the Theo-aesthetic in English Romantic Critiques of
Capitalism.

5. The Frankfurt School: The Critique of Instrumental Reason and
Hints of Return to the Theo-aesthetic within Marxism.

6. The end of Work: Rest, Beauty and Liturgy: The Catholic
Metaphysical Critique of the Culture of Work and its Incorporation
into the English Romantic Tradition: Josef Pieper, Jacques
Maritain, Eric Gill and David Jones.

"These two excellent books provide thematic indices of Christian
ways of understanding both power and work. They also illustrate how
profoundly the repertoire of Christianity and of its Judaic origins
permeates contemporary society in spite of the impossible
prescriptions and false descriptions that declare religion confined
to the private realm." (Times Literary Supplement, 29 July 2011)

"Adam was expelled from the garden of Eden to till the ground in
the sweat of his face, so the bible says, leaving us with centuries
of theological argument about how to relate the reality for so many
people of work as toil, drudgery and effectively a curse, to the
equally familiar experience of work as creative achievement and
personal fulfilment. Post-Christian we may now be in Britain, yet
in a society still reeling from de-industrialization, with
unemployment endemic in certain quarters, with leisure activities
expanding vastly, and so on, there is a rich and complex Christian
tradition of thinking about the nature of work which John Hughes
puts back on the agenda in this provocative book." Fergus Kerr,
University of Oxford

"John Hughes has written not about work but about the 'end' of
work. But this is the most far-reaching question imaginable in
practical reason. To what end do we exert ourselves at all? What do
we hope to achieve? Through a tour of reading in nineteenth and
twentieth century thinkers that is as subtle and sympathetic as it
is diverse and adventurous he has shown us how the ancient struggle
between the fine and the useful has been played out dramatically in
the post-industrial West, and holds the key to a great deal that we
think of as modernity. Here is an exciting new voice contributing
to the interpretation of our moral predicaments. I cannot imagine
anyone putting Hughes’ book down without having learned
something important." Oliver O'Donovan, University of
Edinburgh

"Adam was expelled from the garden of Eden to till the ground in
the sweat of his face, so the bible says, leaving us with centuries
of theological argument about how to relate the reality for so many
people of work as toil, drudgery and effectively a curse, to the
equally familiar experience of work as creative achievement and
personal fulfilment. Post-Christian we may now be in Britain, yet
in a society still reeling from de-industrialization, with
unemployment endemic in certain quarters, with leisure activities
expanding vastly, and so on, there is a rich and complex Christian
tradition of thinking about the nature of work which John Hughes
puts back on the agenda in this provocative book." Fergus Kerr,
University of Oxford

"John Hughes has written not about work but about the 'end' of
work. But this is the most far-reaching question imaginable in
practical reason. To what end do we exert ourselves at all? What do
we hope to achieve? Through a tour of reading in nineteenth and
twentieth century thinkers that is as subtle and sympathetic as it
is diverse and adventurous he has shown us how the ancient struggle
between the fine and the useful has been played out dramatically in
the post-industrial West, and holds the key to a great deal that we
think of as modernity. Here is an exciting new voice contributing
to the interpretation of our moral predicaments. I cannot imagine
anyone putting Hughes’ book down without having learned
something important." Oliver O'Donovan, University of
Edinburgh

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